Rebels in Syria fired two rockets at Damascus international airport on Friday, hitting an aircraft and a fuel dump and sparking a massive fire, the official SANA news agency reported.

"One rocket hit a kerosene tank and the other hit a parked commercial aircraft, badly damaging it," the agency said, adding that traffic at the facility was "normal" and the fire had been extinguished.

Rebels have claimed several times to have fired at Damascus airport but it was the first such report from the official media.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad clashed with rebels near the airport on Monday.

Since November 2012, there has been sporadic fighting in the vicinity of the airport, almost 30 kilometres (20 miles) southeast of the capital, at times interrupting air traffic.